Anniversary
by Ekaterinn
Summary: When his subconscious reminds Mamoru of the anniversary of his and Usagi's first date, he is left with only one difficulty: Finding a present!
1. The Endless Search for a...Present?!?

Konichwa, minna-san! This is my latest fic about the anniversary of Mamoru's and Usagi's first date. Since they really don't have a very first date in the anime, I've made one up as it might have been^_~. Anyway, please review it or [email me][1]. Or you could do both! I LOVE getting mail! And I don't own Sailor Moon. Unfortunately, Naoko Takeuchi still does.

**Anniversary**   
**Chapter 1: The Endless Search For A...Present?!?**

Mamoru walked up to Usagi. "Hey, Usako" he greeted her. But instead of the excited hug and the "Oh Mamo-chan!" he expected, he found her crying. "What's wrong, Usako?" he asked, concerned.

"It's you that's wrong!" Usagi yelled, her voice becoming more strained with each stinging word.

"What did I do?!?" Mamoru asked, flustered.

"I can't believe you forgot the anniversary of our first date!" She brought her hand up "I hate you!" and brought it down on his right cheek with terrible fury induced force. He blinked in a daze, seeing only Usagi's tears and feeling only the slap rock him physically and mentally.

Mamoru woke up with a start, still sweating. He brought his hand up to his cheek and breathed a sigh of a relief when it didn't hurt. _It was only a dream. Thank God. It was only a dream._ He sighed. Mamoru would have liked to place the blame for these recurring dreams on their new enemies but he suspected they were only warnings from his subconscious not to forget about the all important anniversary. _Great._ He thought as he swung out of bed and went to check the calendar once more. _Either it's spooky dreams about a princess or it's Nightly Reminders From My Subconscious._ _Why can't I ever get a good night's sleep!?!_ He traced his finger around the red circle two days in the future. Mamoru wasn't stupid. After the fiasco with Usagi's birthday, he had made sure, both out of a wish not to hurt his love and out of a keen sense of self-preservation, to mark all other important dates on his calendar. And Important Dates definitely include the anniversary of our first date. Mamoru smiled as he remembered.

_They were having a picnic at their favorite park. The sky was clear blue, the sun was shining, and Usako was smiling. Mamoru hadn't been this happy in all his life. After they finished eating, feeling perfectly content, despite the fact his stomach still ached from Usagi's so-called "cooking", he had leaned in to kiss her...and had been surprised by several high-pitched shrieks above them. He had looked up just in time to see Ami, Minako, Rei, and Makoto fell out of a tree and land on top of them. Turning bright red, he had scrambled away from Usagi, pushing some of the girls off him in the process. Usagi looked madder that he had ever seen her as she yelled angrily "Minna! How _could _you!?! " while chasing after the rapidly retreating girls._

Mamoru groaned. On second thought, the nascent plan he had of recreating their first date didn't seem like a good idea after all. He ran his fingers through his jet black hair. Now he was back to the question that had dominated his thoughts all this week. He stood in the apartment and asked the heavens once more:

"What the hell do I get her?!?"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Motoki had been polishing the counters at the arcade when Mamoru had came in. "Hey Mamoru-kun" he said, waving at him. Mamoru didn't seem to notice the greeting, though, and went straight to his table. Motoki frowned. Was he best friend in another one of his black funks again? Well, it didn't matter. He, Motoki, the Super Fantastic Expert on Absolutely Everything, Especially Girls, would fix this. So Motoki grabbed a pot of coffee, and a cup, and slid in across from Mamoru at the table. Filling up the cup with coffee, he asked Mamoru teasingly "So what's up? You seem preoccupied. Girl trouble?"

Mamoru absentmindedly took the cup and sipped the coffee. "Oh, hi, Motoki-kun. Well, kind of."

Motoki nearly fell out of the booth. "You have girl trouble?!? But I had thought you had the perfect relationship with Usagi-chan!" he sputtered.

"Oh, shut up" Mamoru said in disgust. "It's not like that. I just can't figure out to give her for the anniversary of our first date. And unless I can do that, I won't have any relationship with Usako at all!"

Motoki snapped his fingers. "Well in that case you've come to the right place, Mamoru-kun. I am _the_ Expert on the girls!"

Mamoru raised his eyebrow "And that would explain why you don't have a girlfriend?"

Motoki flushed. "A temporary difficulty. Nothing to worry about. Anyway, what I was _about_ to say, before some ungrateful fool interrupted me is that you should go to the mall and find her something pretty to wear and then give it to her in some romantic place."

Mamoru opened his mouth to shoot down Motoki's latest harebrained idea, but closed it when he realized, for once, Motoki actually made sense. "Actually, that's a good idea. Arigato, Motoki-kun" he said as he stood.

"No problem. Say, do you want any help shopping? I saw this cool-looking sweater that was orange, red, and pink striped." Motoki offered.

Mamoru stifled a groan. While Motoki's ideas seemed saner these days, his fashion sense obviously hadn't caught up. "Ummm, no thanks. I think this is something I should do by myself"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*   
Minako smiled as she listened in the safety of the Sailor V game booth. _It's so exciting to watch romance unfold_ the Senshi of Love thought. Wondering if she had enough time to follow Mamoru to the mall, she glanced at her watch. "AGGH! I was supposed to be at the temple five minutes ago!!!!" she wailed. She nearly bumped into Mamoru rushing out of the arcade. "I'm gonna be soooooooooo late!"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*   
Usagi panted as she ran up to Hikawa Shrine. _I can't believe I forgot about meeting! Luna's gonna kill me! _ She heard pounding footsteps behind her. She grinned as the footsteps caught up to her. There was only one person it could be...

"Hey, Usagi-chan!" yelled Minako "Late too?"

"Yep!" she yelled back as she and alongside Minako "But where's Artemis?"

"He met with Luna earlier. They must have gone to the shrine together." Minako replied as they pounded up the steps to the temple together.

Sure enough, Luna and Artemis, along with the other girls, were already there by the time they burst open the door to the shrine.

"Do you think you two be on time for once?" Luna scowled at the miscreants.

Artemis glared at Minako. "Because of you, I'm stuck with monitoring duties in the control room for _another_ week!"

Minako arched an eyebrow. "Teach you to wager with Luna, huh?"

Artemis hissed. "That's NOT the point!"

Usagi giggled. Rei turned to glare at her. "You're late as well. Don't you know punctuality is a virtue?"

Usagi stuck her tongue at Rei. "So's patience!" she retorted.

"Girls, clam down." Ami said softly.

Seeing that nobody had paid attention to Ami, Makoto decided to take the more direct approach. She pushed Rei and Usagi apart with her hands. "Stop fighting, you two!" That done, she turned and gave Artemis and Minako her patented Makoto LookTM. "And that includes you guys as well. We have important things to talk about here!"

"Yes, like whether my Mamo-chan will remember the anniversary of our first date." Usagi said worriedly as she flopped down beside the table and gobbled up two of the cookies Makoto had brought.

Minako sat down beside her. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about it, Usagi-chan." she said with a gleam in her eye. "As the Senshi of Love, I have it on good authority that Mamoru-kun will not only remember it, but get you something pretty to wear and give it to you in a romantic place!"

"Really?" Usagi asked breathlessly.

Minako nodded.

"Wow, Minako-chan, that's awesome! You're the best!"

Rei ate a cookie herself "Well, now that that's settled, what I want to know is what did _you_ get him? I bet it's really stupid!"

Before Usagi could start another fight, Makoto broke in. "Well, I think that you should get him another jacket. I mean that green one just looks plain awful."

Ami nodded in agreement. "It definitely makes him look like less of a hunk."

"AMI-CHAN!" all six voices shouted in shock.

She turned bright red. "Um..um.. I really don't know that much about it!"

Minako shot her a knowing look before turning to Usagi once more "So what did you get him?"

Usagi placed her finger at the side of her mouth. "That is...

Everyone leaned forward.

She grinned evilly "...a secret!"

The girls all groaned. But before they could pepper her with questions once more, Luna cut in. "Just in case you've forgot, this is a _Senshi_ meeting, not Gossip Central! Just because it's been relatively peaceful around here for the past couple of weeks doesn't mean we should relax! It's important..."

Usagi tuned out Luna's lecture and drifted off in a daydream. Mamo-chan was giving her a beautiful present as she gave him hers. Their hands touched and they kissed...she frowned. "Mamo-chan, have you grown a mustache?"

"Usagi-chan! I'm not Mamoru!" Luna's shrill voice woke her up.

"Yikes!" she shrieked, spitting out fur. "Gomen, Luna!"

"NOW will you pay attention to the meeting?!?"

"Sure thing, Luna!" she reassured the cat. But it did no good. Within a few minutes she was daydreaming again...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Mamoru frowned. Things were not going well. Firstly, he had almost collided with a blonde blur that sounded suspiciously like Minako as he walked out of the arcade. Then, he had been nearly run over by a truck as he rushed to the mall. Now, the vendor at the Romantic Gifts stand in the mall seemed determined to show him every single one of the definitely _not_ romantic gifts they had in stock. He winced as the vendor pointed out yet another "gift".

"Now this is the Talking Love BassTM. It makes small "love" talk, if you know what I mean." The vendor winked at him and pushed a button on the mount of the bass. "I'm the Sushi of Love, Sailor B!" it exclaimed. Mamoru groaned. Wi_ll I _**ever**_ find a present for her?!?_

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*   
So what d'ya think? Give me a review or [email me][1].

What will happen next? You'll have to wait until Chapter 2 to find out!

I wanna thank Amai-chan for inspiring me and encouraging me to write this fic! Thank you also to her and Bejiin, who edited it! Domo arigato!

And thanks to you for reading!   
Ja,   
Ekaterinn   
  


   [1]: mailto:ekaterinn@hotmail.com



	2. Mamoru and the Blonde-haired Spy!

**Anniversary******

**Chapter 2: Mamoru and the Blonde-haired Spy!**

Minako covered up a yawn with her hand. The meeting had gone on long enough and the other girls were getting restless, even though nearly all of them seemed to be paying attention to Luna's lecture. She frowned. It was obvious that they weren't getting anything done. She made her decision and quietly slipped out of the room. Minako smiled to herself. The Senshi of Love had more important duties. _Besides, I don't want to be there when Luna finds out Usagi been daydreaming all though meeting!_

Walking out of the temple, Minako caught a bus to the mall. She felt slightly guilty for sneaking out of the meeting like that but she just had to find out what Mamoru was getting Usagi. _And it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission._ She'll apologize to Artemis and the others later. Minako got of the bus and walked into the mall. She glanced around. _Now where would a Mamoru be?_ she thought to herself. She spotted a green jacket and grimaced. _You would think that a guy who shows up to battle in a tux would have better fashion sense than that!_ And then she realized where he was in the mall. She couldn't help herself, she snickered. _It'll take poor Mamoru hours to get away from that crazy vendor!_

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Mamoru groaned again. At the rate this was going, he could look forward to another sleepless night. _Better that than getting Usako one of these "gifts"!_ He had more of an education in tackiness this past half hour than he had in his entire life. And the vendor didn't show any signs of stopping any time soon. Mamoru was considering methods of escape when he heard a familiar snicker from somewhere in the crowd. He whipped his head around and stared straight into Minako's eyes. Now, Mamoru was usually a pretty nice guy. Hell, most of his corny speeches as Tuxedo Kamen were about the importance of not using and deceiving others. However, desperate times require desperate measures and all's fair in love or war. And being a guy, he knew the one thing all guys went for. "Hey, man" he said, interrupting the vendor and pointing at Minako, "That girl looks just like Sailor V!" The vendor's eyes who grew wide and he whirled around to face Minako, who has luck would have it, had thrown on a Sailor V sweatshirt after school. If it was possible for the vendor's eyes to have gotten any wider, they would have popped out of his head. "Hey, pretty Sailor V girl!" he called out to Minako, flexing his so-called 'muscles' "Wanna go out with the love machine?" Minako took one look at his beady eyes and potbelly, shrieked and ran.

Mamoru leaned back on the vending booth and laughed quietly at the spectacle of the vendor chasing poor Minako. Now he could get back to finding a _suitable_ gift for his Usako without fears of teenage spies and crazed vendors.

Minako, however, was _not_ enjoying herself as much as Mamoru obviously was. And she was not in a mood to be charitable towards the baka either. In fact, having managed to lose her chaser at the hentai section of the manga store, she was thinking very un-Senshi of Love thoughts toward Mamoru. An uncharitable soul might actually call them murderous thoughts. However you might define it, Minako was pissed. _Seriously_ pissed. A fact that Mamoru only realized after getting up and catching the glare of her ice blue eyes. He gulped. _And I thought Rei angry was bad!_ And then he did what any self-respecting guy confronted with an angry superheroine who had proven her proficiency with a whip would do: He turned tail and ran. Straight into a lingerie store.

Mamoru's eyes took in the layers of white lace and black silk. "Wait...this isn't...I'm not in..." he said out loud. He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping the embarrassing visions would go away. He slowly opened his eyes again. They hadn't. _Hmmm, maybe I could get Usako one of these things...and then we could...._ His face turned red as Mamoru realized exactly what he had been contemplating. "No! Bad thoughts! Evil thoughts!" he yelled. Taking a wild glance around, he realized everyone in the store was staring at him and turned even redder. Mumbling incoherent apologies, Mamoru stumbled out of the shop and bumped into a hysterically laughing Minako.

Looking down at vastly amused blonde, Mamoru found the perfect outlet for his pent-up humiliation and sexual repression. "How dare you do this to me! I won't allow you to-"   
  
"Oh shut up for once, Mamoru-baka! You were the one who siced that vendor on me!"

"You were spying on me!" he retorted angrily.

"C'mon, Mamoru-san. I just happened to be at the mall at the same time as you!" She pulled an 'angel' pose "I'm perfectly innocent. You're just paranoid!" Mamoru collapsed on a mall bench, completely speechless. Minako smiled at him and skipped out of the plaza. "Ja ne!"

With a groan, Mamoru covered his face with his hands. _Why me?!?_ He groaned again as he realized that everybody in the intermediate vicinity was staring at him with a mix of pity and disgust. _At this rate, I'll never find a present for Usako....and then my relationship will be ruined, and I'll get kicked out of Azabu for dismal grades due to excessive amount of time spent pining and then some overeager youma will put me out of my rose-throwing misery! AGGGHHH! _ Mamoru jerked his head up. Suudenly he felt the need to throw a rose at something. And that was when he saw _it_. _It_ was beautiful, sparkling in the cheaply colored lights of the mall much as his Usako sparkled everywhere. In a daze, he stumbled over to _it_. Through the window of the shop., Mamoru could see that _it_ was indeed perfect in each and every way. _It_ was even in his price range! _I've found it! My gift!___

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Ohmygosh! That was short! But I had to leave y'all with an evil cliffhanger. BUWHAHAHA! However I promise the next one will be longer and that I'll have it out sooner, minna-san! And now for a special bonus:

*Omake Theater!* (audience hisses and boos).   
Ekaterinn: For this special feature (aka the-author-feels-bad-because-her-chapter-is-so-damned-short), Mamo-chan will sing a parody of the song "One Song Glory" from the musical RENT.   
Mamoru: NOOOOOOOO!   
Ekaterinn: That's what's you get for being in a fanfic by someone who is both a Moonie and a RENThead!   
Mamoru: *steps up to the microphone and says nervously* This parody is called "One Gift Glory" *He begins to sing:*

_One gift_   
_Glory_   
_One gift_   
_Before I go_   
_Glory_   
_Insane from the search_   
_Find one gift_   
_Find one perfect present_   
_Glory_   
_From the tuxedo-wearing kamen bishouen_   
_Who wasted sleep_   
_One gift_   
_Why won't my subconscious shut up!_   
_Glory_   
_About the eyes of a young bishoujo_   
_A young bishshoujo_   
_Find glory_   
_Beyond the cheap colored lightbulbs_   
_One gift_   
_Before the mall closes_   
_Glory - on another insane Mamo-chan_   
_Time flies - and then my relationship dies_   
_Glory - One blaze of glory_   
_One blaze of glory - glory_   
_Find_   
_Glory_   
_In a gift that shows true love_   
_And isn't the least bit sexual_   
_A perfect present!_   
_Find_   
_One gift_   
_A beautiful gift_   
_Glory_   
_From the soul of a bishouen_   
_A bishouen_   
_Find_   
_The one gift_   
_Before she cries_   
_Glory_   
_And my heart dies_   
_One gift_   
_To give me some sanity_   
_Time flies_   
_And then - the mall closes_   
_She cries!_

Ekaterinn: *laughing her ass off*   
Mamo-chan: That wasn't funny!   
Ekaterinn: In any case, please review my fic or [email me][1]. Thanks!   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


   [1]: mailto://ekaterinn@hotmail.com



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